1. What products does Ruckus Wireless manufacture and sell?
Ruckus develops and manufactures the next generation of home
network equipment that, for the first time, enables multimedia
distribution throughout the home over common wireless fidelity
(Wi-Fi) technology. Ruckus Wireless makes the Ruckus Wireless
multimedia router and multimedia adapter and has developed a
number of patent-pending technologies that it licenses to third-party
equipment manufacturers. These products were developed to enable
the reliable distribution of multimedia content over standard
802.11 network technology. In addition to dramatically extending
the range, increasing the throughput and eliminating dead-spots
in 802.11b/g networks, the Ruckus system offers the industry's
first Wi-Fi solution capable of transporting IPTV and other
real-time video applications smoothly and reliably, anywhere
throughout a typical home.
2. How are the Ruckus products connected to a home network?
The Ruckus multimedia router connects to the broadband gateway/router
via a standard Ethernet connection. The Ruckus multimedia adapter
connects to an Ethernet-equipped set-top box or similar Ethernet-equipped
video receiver. IPTV or other video content from the broadband
network or a video server can be streamed through Ruckus AP
across the wireless LAN (WLAN) to the Ruckus multimedia adapter,
which forwards it to the video receiver. The Ruckus AP also
supports data applications from PCs and other 802.11b/g clients.
3. Do I need both the Ruckus adapter and Ruckus AP to get
the performance benefits?
Not necessarily. The Ruckus AP enables all standard 802.11b/g
attached stations to communicate over farther distances, at
higher speeds, with fewer errors and retransmissions. For typical
data applications such as Web surfing and file copying, the
Ruckus AP optimizes wireless performance by itself.
Likewise for typical video applications (non-IPTV), if the
video receiver is already equipped with an 802.11g port, the
Ruckus AP alone should deliver enough performance to sustain
the video stream, provided that the receiver supports a good
802.11g implementation. But if the video receiver does not have
an 802.11g port, or if its wireless port performs poorly, the
Ruckus adapter would be necessary.
4. What are the performance characteristics of the Ruckus
system?
For data applications, test results showed that the Ruckus
AP delivers an average throughput of 20Mbps to 30Mbps within
30 feet (10m), with 0 to 2 interior walls in between the client
station and the AP.
For video applications, a Ruckus multimedia network is optimized
to assure transmission of 10-15 Mbps at 99% guaranteed packet
delivery throughout a typical home (2500ft2 / 230m2). This performance
target is designed to support up to:
- (3) simultaneous MPEG-4/Microsoft WMV video streams
- or (1-2) DVD-quality MPEG-2 streams
- or a single high-definition MPEG-4/Microsoft WMV stream
5. What is unique about the Ruckus Wireless multimedia system?
It's the only solution on the market that delivers reliable
multimedia transmissions simultaneously over standard 802.11
Wi-Fi.
Video streaming requires a network environment that behaves
reliably – with uninterrupted, low-latency packet delivery.
Typical off-the-shelf WLAN products are designed for bursty
data applications which can tolerate a high degree of bandwidth
fluctuation and transmission errors, which cause frequent and
noticeable service interruptions for video viewing. The Ruckus
system by contrast, was designed specifically to manage video
streaming applications, ensuring consistent and continuous bandwidth
throughout a home. With the Ruckus system, consumers can now
stream videos from anywhere in their home (e.g., a PC video
server in a bedroom or directly from their broadband modem in
the study) to a media receiver located next to the television
in the sitting room without installing new Ethernet cables.
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